Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News

Drudge Retort

User Info

LampLighter

Subscribe to LampLighter's blog Subscribe

Menu

Special Features

Friday, July 25, 2025

The Trump administration told a federal appeals court that legitimate immigration enforcement efforts in Los Angeles will be hurt by a temporary order that halted the the use of racial profiling to target individuals for detention.


Rising summer temperatures have softened Europe's resistance to air conditioning and touched off a new political fight about the wisdom of installing the technology everywhere, U.S.-style. read more


Thursday, July 24, 2025

A couple's decision to join the "mile-high club" on a flight to Sarasota landed them a trip to jail, according to arrest affidavits.


For Gundbert Scherf -- the co-founder of Germany's Helsing, Europe's most valuable defence start-up: "Europe this year, for the first time in decades, is spending more on defense technology acquisition, opens new tab than the U.S.," said Scherf. read more


President Donald Trump's top intelligence official appeared in the White House briefing room Wednesday to level allegations no U.S. spy chief has ever made against a former president or administration. read more


Comments

@#1 ... Who needs South Park? ...

That episode was classic.


OpEd: Trump's 'South Park' Problem
www.politico.com

... They said last year they were done with Donald Trump. They didn't know what more they could say about him.

But in the return to the airwaves of Comedy Central stalwart South Park " the first episode since March 2023 " the creators of the irreverent, long-running cartoon series just couldn't resist.

Trump is skewered for his connections to Jeffrey Epstein, and he is depicted as a man who has lined the walls of the White House with naked photos of himself. He's also portrayed as being in a relationship with the Devil, who is concerned Trump is starting to act a lot like one of his former lovers, Saddam Hussein. "It's weird that whenever [the Epstein list] comes up, you just tell everyone to relax," the Devil tells Trump.

It's the latest sign that Trump has lost control of the Epstein narrative, and that the saga has broken Washington containment and permeated deep into popular culture. That makes it the worst kind of White House mess. ...



Jeffrey Epstein said he stopped hanging out with Trump 'when he realized Trump was a crook,' according to his brother (2023)
www.yahoo.com

... Jeffrey Epstein hinted at his fallout with Donald Trump in an unaired interview, according to his brother.

"He stopped hanging out with Trump when he realized Trump was a crook," Mark Epstein told Insider.

Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were friends for years, and the nature of their fallout remains hazy.

rk Epstein told Insider he viewed a clip of the interview, conducted by Trump's former White House advisor Steve Bannon, after his brother forwarded it to him in the spring of 2019.

At the time, Bannon was conducting filmed interviews with the now-dead pedophile financier. Bannon sent Jeffrey Epstein a Dropbox link to a clip, which he forwarded to his brother. The link is no longer active, according to Mark.

"Jeffrey showed me the link to one of these interviews," Mark Epstein said. "And in that interview, Jeffrey said he stopped hanging out with Trump when he realized Trump was a crook."

Insider has not been able to independently view the video. Bannon could not be reached for comment.

Jeffrey Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on sex-trafficking charges and died in jail several weeks later while awaiting trial. A compensation fund formed after his death concluded he sexually abused at least 136 people overall.

Epstein and Trump were reportedly acquaintances between the 1980s and 2000s. The two ran in elite Manhattan social circles, and Epstein's home in Palm Beach was a short drive from Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, where he was a frequent guest. Footage obtained by NBC News in 1992 shows them partying together, talking about women, and cracking jokes.

Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's accusers, has testified that his associate Ghislaine Maxwell first picked her up at Mar-a-Lago when she was 16 years old before introducing her to Epstein. At Maxwell's own criminal trial, in 2021, one accuser testified that Maxwell introduced her to Trump at Mar-a-Lago when she was 14 years old. Other accusers said Maxwell and Epstein often namedropped Trump. ...


[Lots of links in that article... ]

... chief scientific officer of Children's Health Defense ...

Related...

RFK Jr.s anti-vaccine group sues him: "This is not the Bobby we know"
arstechnica.com

... A lawyer who represents Children's Health Defense -- the rabid anti-vaccine organization founded by the equally fervent anti-vaccine advocate and current US health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. -- has filed a lawsuit against Kennedy, alleging that he has failed to set up a task force to promote safer childhood vaccinations. ...

Barack Obama Sees Death Threat Surge After Trump's Treason Claims
www.newsweek.com

... Former U.S. President Barack Obama has been the subject of online death threats and calls for imprisonment after President Donald Trump and the director of national intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard accused him of treason regarding Russian influence in previous presidential elections.

According to a report by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), social media comments calling for Obama's imprisonment or execution surged between July 17 and July 20, after the administration claimed Obama's administration "manipulated and withheld" key information on the extent to which Russia was involved in the 2016 election. Obama has denied the allegations. ...


Gabbard's claims of an anti-Trump conspiracy are not supported by declassified documents
apnews.com

... Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard this month declassified material she claimed proved a "treasonous conspiracy" by the Obama administration in 2016 to politicize U.S. intelligence in service of casting doubt on the legitimacy of Donald Trump's presidential election victory.

As evidence, Gabbard cited newly declassified emails from Obama officials and a 5-year-old classified House report in hopes of undermining the intelligence community's conclusion Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to boost Trump and denigrate his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. ...





@#2 ... John Oliver Sewage Treatment Plant ...

Some details I had forgotten about ...

John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant
en.wikipedia.org

... The John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant is a sewage treatment plant in Danbury, Connecticut, named after the British-American comedian and political satirist John Oliver.

The plant was completely renovated in response to a 2008 order from state and federal agencies to address the inability of the existing sewage system to curtail phosphorus concentrations in wastewater, as well as other environmental issues.

After Oliver made fun of Danbury on his show, Last Week Tonight, Danbury mayor Mark Boughton responded by offering to rename their $100-million sewage plant for Oliver.

Boughton later told reporters that it was a joke, but after Oliver offered $55,000 to local charities in exchange for the plant's renaming, the city agreed to officially term the site the "John Oliver Memorial Sewer Plant".

Construction began in 2019, and was finished in October 2020, with Oliver personally attending the ribbon-cutting ceremony. ...


Drudge Retort
 

Home | Breaking News | Comments | User Blogs | Stats | Back Page | RSS Feed | RSS Spec | DMCA Compliance | Privacy